The present invention relates to edible compositions which, in spite of the fact that they contain large amounts of oil or oil-like materials, are highly palatable when ingested orally. These compositions are particularly useful as carriers for pharmaceutical agents.
A wide variety of oil and oil-like materials are well-known ingredients in edible products, such as foods or pharmaceuticals. These materials, however, are generally found to be extremely distasteful and difficult to swallow when taken orally. This fact would readily be confirmed by almost anyone who has had to swallow castor oil. While oil can be made relatively bland in taste through deodorization, organoleptically it is still greasy tasting, relatively viscous, and very difficult for most people to stomach. A simple, easy to prepare composition which would remove such negative taste and mouthfeel impressions would, thus, be very useful, for example, in preparing an oral dosage form of oil-like pharmaceutical agents. It has now been found that by combining a high potency lipid soluble sweetener, such as saccharin, and a flavorant with an oil or oil-like material, the resulting edible composition surprisingly does not have an oily or otherwise unpleasant mouthfeel or taste and is quite palatable when ingested orally.
Various edible oils have long been known to be usefully included in food compositions, such as in mayonnaise, various food coatings or toppings, and salad dressings. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,405, Beach, issued July 8, 1969; U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,336, Rasmusson, issued June 1, 1971; U.S. Pat. No. 3,743,716, Rizzi, et al., issued July 3, 1973; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,261, Goodman, issued July 6, 1976, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. Some of these oil-containing food compositions additionally include a wide variety of sweetener and flavor components. However, there is no recognition that the selection of a specific subgroup of sweeteners as required in the present application, can, together with lipid soluble flavorants, provide palatable compositions containing high levels of edible oils or oil-like materials.
Numerous sweeteners and flavor enhancers have also been taught in the art. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,970, Stephens, et al., issued Dec. 21, 1971; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,592, Suarez, et al., issued Aug. 12, 1975, both of which are incorporated herein by reference. While these sweeteners may be, and frequently are, used in combination with various flavorants, there is no teaching or suggestion of their use with oily materials in the type of compositions taught in the present application. Finally, French Specification No. 73-23422, Laboratoires Sandoz S.A.R.L., published Mar. 21, 1975, describes the use of mixtures of saccharin and flavorant which are incorporated in gelatin capsules in order to mask bad flavors found in certain medicine products; the formation of a palatable edible oil or oil-like material containing compositions is not involved in the invention disclosed therein.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an edible composition containing an oil or oil-like material which is found to be palatable and pleasant when eaten.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a palatable, easy to prepare oral delivery vehicle for oily or lipid soluble pharmaceutical agents.